Hollywood lands at the Riis Houses

The graffiti that was used for the set of Broken City at the Riis Houses

A man is running through the Riis Houses development late at night, when the streets of the East Village are empty and dark. Suddenly he gets shot, right in front of a building. Dozens of neighbors are watching through their windows.

Fortunately, the residents have nothing to worry about. In fact, they couldn’t have been more excited, because this was not just another murder. It was a Hollywood movie scene.

“We’re famous!” said Maria Rosa, who lives in one of the buildings surrounding the set. “When you watch the movie you can tell: That’s the back of my house!”

The Riis Houses got a taste of Hollywood for the first time on Sunday when the movie Broken City started filming right in the middle of the East Village housing development. The film, directed by Allen Hughes, features stars Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

The Emmet/Furla Film production team took over the development on Nov. 6, parking huge trucks full of high-tech equipment, using the tenant association’s meeting room for a crew dinner and filming a shootout at the foot of one of the Riis Houses buildings.

On the wall of the building on 1115 FDR Drive, the production team put up colorful 40-foot-wide faux graffiti depicting Martin Luther King and Mother Theresa next to the fake name of the development in the movie: “Bolton Village.”

In many buildings a notice was posted, telling the neighbors not to worry about gun shots and other noises, and asking them not to call the police if they heard anything. Also, parking was blocked in the surrounding streets.

Around the set, the development buzzed with curiosity and excitement. Camille Spry, who lives in the very own building where the set was built, was excited to have a good view of the filming and wished she could meet Mark Wahlberg.

Asked if they thought that shooting a crime movie in the developments could hurt the neighborhood’s reputation, most of the residents disagreed, although for different reasons. “It’s a bad area anyway,” said Maria Rosa. “We’re used to these shootings.”

Workers prepare the set for a scene of the new Mark Wahlberg and Russel Crowe movie, Broken City.

Yvonn D’Aguilar said she doesn’t mind because they’re going to use a different name. “I think it’s exciting. We never had anything on such a large scale here,” she said.

Nilsa Owens, the tenant association president, also believes this is a great event for the Riis Houses. “Of all the projects they selected us!” she said. She doesn’t care about the movie shedding a bad light on the project as long as it gets recognized. “That’s our project!” she said.

Not everybody is stoked to have a multi-million-dollar Hollywood production taking place out front — and not only because of the parking block. “This sucks,” said James Espinar, “Hollywood is making money, not us.” He also complained that the production team did not employ or cast any of the residents.

The production team, however, will be back at the Riis Houses for some other scenes. In a flyer left in the tenant association room, the production team announced they would be at the development on Nov. 18^th to cast “approximately 35 people (mostly children) from Jacob Riis to work as extras in the film.” The note also said that every resident will be paid if cast as an extra.

“It’s an honor to be working with the residents of Jacob Riis,” read the end of the flyer.

Filming went on until the wee hours, with production assistants blocking access to the set, escorting residents who needed to enter their buildings and asking anybody else not to come close to the set. According to Carlos Gutierrez, there was almost nobody on the streets when he went to sleep at 10.30 p.m..

During the night, some residents heard two quiet gunshots, but nothing else. “It didn’t bother anybody,” said Gutierrez.